Flyer had walked out of the castle and was now over by the Elder Tree. He took a look at the castle from faraway. There was no turning back at this point. They were probably gone.
"All right... I finally did it..." Flyer sighed. "I've finally let that out..."
He looked away from the castle, but as he took a couple of steps, he couldn't help but look back.
"Maybe...this wasn't the best idea... I mean, I'm not the only one in the group that got hurt..." the Wingel looked at the ground with a guilty expression. "Chopper's not one to be a jerk... He's always been there for me whenever I was in trouble... Maybe I should go back and apologize..."
"Or, maybe you can come with us!"
Flyer looked at the ground to see Beldam rise from the ground. That grin of hers looked as if she had some evil scheme up her sleeves.
"Beldam? What are you doing here?" Flyer asked. "Look, if you're looking for Chopper, beating me for the answer won't work. He's probably already gone by now."
"Mmmmwee hee hee hee! Oh, but I'm not here to fight!" Beldam assured. "While in the shadows, I listened to what you had to say in that castle. And, I can understand where you're coming from."
"Understand? And why should I listen to you?"
Flyer began to walk away, but Beldam sank into the shadows and rose up in front of him. "Oh, hear me out. You say you felt neglected by your group. I, on the other hand, had been neglected by my king and queen when that plug-ugly sister of mine came into the picture. I was enraged, so I wanted to make her feel as miserable as possible."
"So that's why you disliked her then?"
"Correct. And... I also thought about finding a new member to join us. Personally, I think freak-in-a-sheet is not that useful when it comes to power. But you... I see something special in you! Not only do you have a lot of brains, but you have technology as well! I think with those aspects, you could be unstoppable!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in joining evil," Flyer said.
"But what about those who had neglected you?" Beldam asked. "I can see it in your eyes... You wish to get back at them, right?"
"No, I don't. I believe I made a mistake, and I should go apologize to Chopper..."
Flyer continued to walk away, but Beldam stopped him in his tracks once more.
"Apologize? But why do that after what I had heard from the others after you left?"
Using her magic, Beldam showed a vision of Chopper and his friends. None of them looked like they were depressed. In fact, they were...laughing?
"You know, it was great that we got rid of Flyer!" Bombette exclaimed.
"Who needs that no-good wing-head?" Shadower added.
"It stinks I don't have anyone to take the hits for me," Chopper said. "Oh, well. He was useless anyway!"
"Wait... What?" Flyer gaped, appalled by the image.
"Mmmmwee hee hee hee! That's right, Flyer! They just saw you as a mere punching bag and tool!"
"I..." Flyer blinked in realization and glared at Beldam. "You're just making that up. They'd never say stuff like that."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. So leave me alone. I have to go."
Beldam grumbled to herself as Flyer began to walk away from her. This kid was smart. Too smart. He knew way better than that antennaed kid and even her traitorous sister...
But that wasn't stopping her from getting a new member.
Beldam flew over to Flyer, and upon placing her hand on his head, the Wingel suddenly froze in his tracks. "Those friends of yours are not very truthful, you know... They've said some very nasty things about you!"
She finally let go of Flyer, who slowly turned to face her with his eyes closed.
"Let me teach you our magic... And then... You will be able to get revenge on Chopper and his friends!"
Flyer slowly opened his eyes, which had become a glowing light blue.
"Yes..."
"Excellent choice, Flyer!" Beldam grinned. "You will not be disappointed.
Beldam grabbed Flyer's arm and brought him down into the shadows.
"Mmmmwee hee hee hee! Excellent! Everything's going all according to my plan!"
Desert-
The teleporter was lucky enough to take them to the next continent: the desert. It looked like a typical desert, having a couple of pyramids far in the distance and lots of sand. ...Well, there were at least some rocks, but this was only at a lone terminal.
When the teleporter at the desert activated, Chopper and his friends stumbled out, but they were able to maintain their footing as they stepped away from the teleporter. Bang, on the other hand, wasn't lucky, as he fell face flat on the sand. As he stood up, he started spitting and coughing. out sand.
"Well... We're in the desert." Chopper sighed. "I was never a big fan of this part of the planet."
"I have no problem with it," Berry said. "This shouldn't be THAT difficult."
"That depends on what you consider difficult," Blade said, trying to cover his face. "Ugh... I'm not a big fan of deserts. They really annoy me. Especially during a sandstorm..."
"Well, the only thing we can do a move on ahead," Chopper spoke up, pointing to the sandy hill going downward ahead. Everyone else decided to follow ahead.
"I wonder if Trinado was telling the truth. Is this place empty?" Shadower asked.
"Hmmmmm..." Chopper scanned the area. Hardly anything in their sight. However, there was one exception. There were two rock creatures that appeared to be sleeping. "Are those Rockos?"
"Rockos?" Bombette gawked. "What the heck are they?"
"Rock minions," the antennae hero answered, approaching the two sleeping Rockos. One of them happened to wake up and spot him.
"Hold on a sec… I think I see two rock minions! Let's see how they are!" Chopper walked over to the two Rockos that were sleeping. These guys are just normal rock monsters that love to smash things.
"Huh…? What is pale green object doing here?" the Rocko asked. "You remind me of Chopper. …Too bad he gone now. He gone for two years…"
"These guys speak weird..." Night whispered.
"But I AM Chopper!" Chopper exclaimed, accidentally waking the other one up. "I didn't think you guys would be this dumb!"
Unfortunately, the Rockos took this as an insult, and they clenched their fists in anger. Chopper immediately gulped.
"Me no like it when insulted! Me thinks you should be squished!" the Rocko tried to bring its fists down on Chopper, but he managed to jump out of the way to dodge it. Night's hammer side of his weapon hit the Rocko, causing it to crumble into dust. Blade finished off the other Rocko by swinging his katana at it, giving a thumbs up upon finishing.
"And that takes care of them!" Blade smirked.
"Yeesh, you know how to handle that weapon. Who taught you how to use one anyway?" Sonic asked.
"Well, my sensei taught me! Not only that, but he taught me to-" Blade was cut off when he heard the sound of another Rocko coming toward him. But he was lucky enough to be saved by Bang. "OK, that was close..."
"Uhhh... You're welcome." Bang groaned.
The sound of crying caught Chopper's attention, and when he looked up ahead, he saw what appeared to be a girl. He ran over to her and noticed she was wearing dirty clothing. She also wore a veal that covered her face.
"I don't know if this person's from this area..." Chopper thought. "Hey, are you OK?"
"I'm fine…" the little girl sniffled, turning to Chopper and his approaching friends. "I'm just…sniff… I'm just sad that no one wants to play with me!"
"Play with you? What the heck do you mean?" Scrub questioned.
"I was looking for some guests to stay at my house for some tea and pie, but the rock monsters don't want to!"
"Pie? That sounds yummy..." Chopper trailed, thinking of food.
"Could you and your friends please play with me?" the girl asked.
"I don't know..."
"Pleeeeeeeeeeease?" she asked again, softening her eyes.
"But... We really can't. We're trying to save the universe! Maybe you can find someone else to play with?"
Chopper and his friends walked on ahead to get back to business, but they heard the little girl cry louder. It was so loud, that many of them had to cover their ears.
"GEEZ! She's too loud!" Scrub cried. "What a big baby!"
"Well, it'll go away if we just walk away from her," Berry noted. "As much as I don't like to leave someone crying... We do have something important to do."
However, as they continued walking, the crying had not vanished. In fact, it was only getting louder from there. Many thought she had such a loud voice, but it wasn't the case when they stopped and turned around. The girl was still there, following them and crying loudly.
"She's not letting us walk away!" Tamber gaped.
"OK, fine! We'll play with you!" Chopper shouted, finally giving up. "Just stop crying!"
"YAAAAAAY! Come on! It's just this way!" the girl grabbed Chopper by the antennae and dragged him over to her house. Everyone else followed the green girl over to the small, yellowish house not too far from them.
"Crud! We're going to be playing some dumb, girly games!" Scrub complained, sticking his tongue out in disgust.
Going inside, they noticed the interior of the house was filled with PINK. There was a small, pink couch, and there was a little table with a couple of chairs with some dolls on them.
"This is...strange..." Vivian trailed.
"It still looks bad..." Scrub grumbled, turning to Berry. "Hey, do you know anything about playing tea party or something?"
"I stopped playing it when I was four," Berry recalled. "Then again, that was when Mondrao was destroyed..."
The little girl had made everyone sit down on the small chairs, and they were far from happy. Bang, especially, was pouting like a little kid.
"This is so stupid!" Bang grumbled.
"Wait, aren't the manliest people able to handle pink?" Night asked.
"What? How come no one told me this? Well, then…" Bang took a deep breath, making his chest look buffed up. "I can handle the pink in this room! I'm a real man!"
"You are? Well, that's great!" the green girl smiled. "My name's Deca, and I'm just a lonely girl who lives out here in the desert."
"How long have you lived here?" Chopper asked.
"Oh, about a year or so..." Deca took out a pie and placed it in front of Bang. "Here you go, doggy!"
"'Doggy'?!" Bang gawked. "It's Bang! BANG!"
"OK, Bang, that's enough," Blade face palmed. Bang gave him a scowl before he started to eat the pie.
"Hey... This wasn't bad! I think I'd like another-" Bang paused, getting a bad feeling in his stomach. "Oh, geez... I don't feel so good."
"What's wrong?"
"Where's the bathroom? I need a bathroom!" Bang quickly stood up and rushed over to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
"Whoa… That must be one heck of a pie he just ate." Chopper remarked, a bit surprised. However, something suddenly sparked in his mind, as if he saw something familiar to that. "Wait... What was in the pie?"
"Well…" Deca paused, trying to think. "There was cream, apples…and…uh… I don't remember the other thing..."
"There's something else in that pie? Hmmmm..."
"What's wrong?"
"It's just that... I'm suddenly reminded of something back on the Rainbow Cruise. And the person who caused that was..." Chopper paused, taking a look at Deca. "Hey... I don't know why, but you remind me of-"
Seeing the disguise as pointless, Deca removed her veal, revealing herself to be Decoya. "Surprise! I bet you weren't expecting to see me here! I was hoping to torture you all, but I guess that didn't work as planned..."
"Torture us? Yeah, very funny..." Blade chuckled, drawing his weapon. "It's thirteen against one here! ...Well, I guess twelve if we're counting Bang out."
Before they could strike, Decoya created a boxed outline around herself and teleported out of their vicinity. How she managed to escape surprised many of them.
"What a weird girl..." Bombette trailed. "I guess we should get out of this house and try to chase her."
"Poyo, (Yeah, let's go,)" Kirby agreed, following everyone out of the house. Sadly, they didn't find any sight of the green girl.
"Great… She managed to get away from us..." Chopper sighed, walking away from the house. To his surprise, he spotted a yellow pipe up ahead. "Hey... What's that?"
At that moment, Bang came running out of the house, fully relieved. "All right, guys! What'd I miss?"
"Nothing special," Night answered. "Just some little girl who was pretty much evil."
"Oh, man! I should've been there! ...Hey, what's that ahead?"
"We were just about to go in there," Chopper said, rushing toward the pipe. He looked down it first, and then he gestured everyone to come over. With that, they went into the pipe and went underground.
Underground-
Coming out of the pipe, they noticed their surroundings resembled that of an underground area, having a dark background and a rockier floor, unlike the sand from above. Thankfully, everyone had managed to land safely on their feet.
"At least it's cooler here than outside," Shadower remarked, sighing in relief.
"Well... I suppose we should check and see where this takes us." Sonic suggested.
Chopper walked on ahead and noticed a little passageway being blocked by a large Dark Block. He smashed it with his Master Hammer technique and moved on with his friend.
"I never knew a Dark Block would be down here," Vivian remarked, the group reaching a couple of vertical platforms that were moving up and down.
"Jumping? …Well, I DO have the Master Shoes. My higher jumps will come in handy here." Chopper leaped high in the air thanks to his shoes and landed on a platform that took him to an upper ledge that held a Master Shroom. "Wow! Another Master Shroom! Today is my lucky day!"
He put the mushroom away and jumped back down to the lower area. The other had thankfully gotten past the platforms and had resumed their running. A couple of navy blue Goombas with red feet called Gloombas were roaming around. Many were surprised, considering that it was not common to see these type of enemies around.
"Wait... Why is it called a Gloomba?" Scrub asked.
"Maybe Flyer know-" Chopper paused, realizing his friend wasn't here. He slowly frowned and let out a sigh. "Gee, I sure miss Flyer..."
"Look, try not to be hard on yourself," Blade advised. "It's not the end of the world. Plus, I bet he'll get over it soon."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah! We're not like girls, who get a bit too emotional over some small things!"
Now that had made him receive glares from the girls. Well, mostly Bombette and Berry.
"What? You know it's true."
"...You know, I'm not going to bother with it." Berry stated, walking up to the pipe that was up ahead.
"Wow, you messed up this time, Blade," Bang grinned.
"Shut it, Bang," Blade retorted, running into the pipe. Everyone else shrugged and entered the pipe afterward.
Jungle-
"Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh! Now we'll get that Crystal Star for sure! Thanks to my new X-Tank, there's no way that that Dark Block will get in our way this time!" Lord Crump laughed as a silver tank with a black X on the top began to travel through the jungle, leaving a trail behind.
"Everything seems to be in order, Lord Crump," confirmed Johnson. "We're ready to fire at the Dark Block when we arrive."
"Well, DUH! This is the X-Tank for crying out loud! It's unstoppable! Just watch this bad boy cause some havoc!" Lord Crump pushed a button, and the tank fired a green missile, which destroyed a couple of trees in their path. "See? It's a force of nature!"
"Yes, I will admit, it is a powerful machine."
"Now let's go find ourselves that Dark Block!" Lord Crump drove the X-Tank over to where the Dark Block was. However, something was missing in that area. "BUH HUH?! What in the world?!"
"Wait... The block is gone?" Johnson gawked. "That thing can stand up to anything! How is it gone?"
"Perhaps Chopper was involved in it?" the other X-Naut spoke up.
"If he was, then good for him! In fact, he did us a little favor by allowing us more freedom!" Lord Crump grinned. "We'll go find an area on this planet to set up a base, and we'll give Chopper what's coming! C'mon, Johnson! Let's beat this place!"
"As you wish, Lord Crump…" sighed Johnson, pressing a button to make the X-Tank fly in the air. With that, it flew off the continent.
Desert surface-
When they came out of the pipe, the first thing they noticed was a pyramid standing right in front of them.
"Hey, I remember this pyramid! It was when I found Kayzee!" Chopper recalled while he looked at his surroundings. "But it's pretty empty around here... There's no Rockos. I wonder if Stoneard is still around?"
"Stoneard? Who is he?" Sonic asked.
"He's a big, powerful rock monster. He's a bit slow, though."
"Heh! Then if he tries to pick a fight with us, it should be no problem!"
"I bet I could take this stone creature on," Night declared. "...But, I guess we're going into that pyramid, right?"
"Yeah, I guess. Let's go!" Chopper smashed the Dark Block in the way of the entrance and proceeded on into the pyramid with the others. The interior had quicksand in the inner part of the room, while the outer part, which they were on, was solid ground.
"It's just an empty pyramid..." Berry trailed, not looking too impressed. "This is kinda boring."
"Well, there's this sand here," Bang noted, approaching the quicksand. He was about to put his foot in it, but Blade kicked it away. "Hey! What gives?!"
"It's quicksand, you moron," Blade informed.
"How do you know?"
"Well... Maybe you should test it out."
Bang looked at the sand for a moment, but he chose to step away from it. Meanwhile, Vivian had looked up and noticed a doorway up on a ledge in the opposite direction.
"Getting up there doesn't seem so difficult," Vivian said.
"Yeah, who needs to go through this area when we can-" Chopper stopped when he heard a the sound of a ship flying by. "What was that?"
"Let me check," Vivian extended her little ghost tail to the exit and saw a black and purple ship flying over the desert. There were a couple of others following it as well. "I see… I see a couple of ships that are black and purple…"
"…Did you say black and purple?" Blade asked, raising an eyebrow. "Uh oh..."
"What do you mean, 'uh oh'?" Chopper asked.
"That color scheme matches Dark Doom's. He's here, and I think he's looking for something here."
"Dark Doom? Oh… That guy…" Sonic realizing, clenching his fists and smirking. "Well if he runs into us, we'll make sure to take care of him! But first, we need to get outta here."
They jumped on the platforms that led up to the exit, and Chopper used his Spring Jump to grab onto the pole leading there. However, moving was a bit difficult, considering that were were a couple of people grabbing onto his feet. Regardless, he tried continuing, and he eventually led go in front of the doorway. They wasted no time and bolted out.
Outside of the pyramid-
"Whew… I can't believe we made it out of there…" Bang sighed, shaking his head like a maraca to get any sand out.
"That place wasn't really much of a challenge, though," Night pointed out.
Before they could get moving, they noticed behind them, it appeared to be a bit darker than usual. They looked up at the sky and saw the darkness getting closer. Everyone gulped and ran toward a castle up ahead.
"I can't believe that the darkness is already getting closer! This is BAD…" Shadower gulped.
"Yeah... But at least we're getting closer to the next castle." Chopper said, noticing the castle up ahead. When they reached it, Chopper walked over to the front entrance and opened it. The interior appeared a bit old, but not resembling ruins, thankfully. "This is the castle all right... Though, I wonder if there's a shortcut."
Studying the tan room, he spotted a cracked wall to the left.
"Hey! I think I can destroy that!" Bombette scurried over to Chopper. "Do what you need to do, Chopper!"
Chopper picked Bombette up and threw her near the wall. When she blew it up, a room with an elevator was revealed to be behind.
"An elevator? This castle didn't have an elevator before..." Chopper trailed, approaching the elevator and opening it. "Well, that makes it easier for us then!"
There were about four buttons on the elevator rather than three. Obviously they pressed the button to the fourth floor. But, just like Trinado's Castle, the buttons lit up.
And of course, Bang was eager to press them.
"Oh, no... Not again!" Blade cried, trying to pull him away.
But it was too late...
Three minutes later-
When the elevator opened up, Bang had walked out with a black eye, with the others following behind. The room was small, and it only had a Save Block and Heart Block. Chopper hit both before approaching the black door ahead.
"Here we go guys! Let's head on in!" Chopper opened the door, and everyone proceeded into the room. Last time he remembered, Stoneard was not in this room two years ago.
Instead, he found...
"What the… Is that…Stoneard?" Chopper gaped, seeing a rock monster in red and white rather than the typical brown.
"Huh? Stoneard hears voices!" the orange eyes of Stoneard opened as he looked ahead. He spotted Chopper and pounded his fists angrily. "You! You are…er…"
"I'm Chopper…"
"Chopper! Yes… You're…er…Chopper! Stoneard hasn't seen you in a while! Not in many years has Stoneard seen your face! …But seeing your face makes Stoneard ANGRY!"
"Was Stoneard originally like this?" Vivian asked.
"No... He was more brown than red. But who the heck made him this?" Chopper wondered.
"That would be because of me!" Decoya cackled, floating on a mushroom beside Stoneard with a smirk.
"Oh! Who is that?" Bang asked.
"That's that girl who we met before," Blade answered. "Weren't you there for- Oh, wait, you weren't."
"Thanks to my help, I've made him much stronger than before!" Decoya smirked. "And now he's going to crush you! Can you do that, Stony?"
"Stoneard obey beautiful Decoya!" Stoneard answered, smashing the floor again. "Now Stoneard crush you all!"
"That is, unless we beat you first!" Chopper shouted, pulling his hammer out. "Let's go, Stoneard!"
Tattle: That's Stoneard. He's some kind of weird rock monster that's made of…mushrooms? That's weird… It's kind of like that Mushroom Colossus Max HP is 300, Attack is 15, and Defense is 2. He'll usually try to smash you with his fists. He may have some powerful moves, but he's pretty slow. Try to use your speed to your advantage. Though I should warn you, burning him will not work on him. He's made of rock, after all... Why he's made of mushrooms is what confuses me. Oh well… All you gotta do is beat this guy and maybe you can get out of here. …Just as long as Decoya doesn't give him a hand, that is… I hope I didn't jinx that!
Chopper raised his hammer above him and he threw it directly at Stoneard's face. Since it was a defense-piercing move, he managed to take 10 out of him. "It feels great to have moves that can deal some awesome damage."
"Oof! …That may be strong, but that won't do enough to Stoneard! Stoneard is too tough, thanks to cute girl!" Stoneard laughed.
"Oh, yeah? That depends on if you can handle this!" Tamber rushed over to Stoneard and punched him, causing the stone creature to wince in pain. "Ha! See? You can't handle this!"
"Grrrrrr!" Stoneard clenched his fists and knocked Tamber back with a powerful punch. He almost crashed into Chopper, but he moved out of the way just in time.
"Now who's next?" Stoneard asked, cracking his knuckles.
"I don't think any of my abilities are going to harm him…" Vivian trailed. "Goombella even said that burning him won't work."
"I'm sure you can at least hurt him," Chopper said as he struck Stoneard again with his hammer. Vivian shrugged and hit the rock monster with her Shade Fist. It did do 8 damage, but it didn't leave him with a burn.
"Ouch…" Stoneard said stupidly as he punched Vivian, knocking her back slightly. She rubbed her cheek where she was punch and let out a sigh.
"Hee hee! What's wrong, are you going to cry?" Decoya giggled.
"N-No... I'm fine..." the Shadow Siren assured, returning to the group.
"Bah ha ha! You are all... Uhhhh..."
"You're a wimp?" Shadower corrected.
"Yeah! I'm a wimp!"
"Wait..." Chopper paused. "But didn't he say..."
"Shhhhh!" Tamber cut in, covering Chopper's mouth.
"...HEY!" Stoneard yelled, realizing what he just said.
Chopper approached Stoneard just as he was pouting and whacked him with his hammer. Bombette lit her fuse up afterward and ran up to him, exploding in front of the large rock monster.
"Gah! Stoneard is ANGRY!" Stoneard growled, knocking Bombette back toward Chopper. Thankfully, he managed to stop her before she could tumble into the wall. He delivered a Hammer Throw at Stoneard afterward.
"Hmmm... Let's see if my Gulp will hurt him." Scrub brought his long tongue out and inhaled Stoneard successfully, doing 10 damage to him when he spat him out. "Whoa... It actually worked!"
Stoneard brought his attention to Chopper and began to charge at him. He managed to land a punch on his face, leaving a red mark. However, Berry was not pleased and swung her hammer on his head. This left the stone monster a little dazed, allowing Chopper to use his Hammer Throw and bring him down to 210 HP.
"Well, I guess Chopper was right about him being dumb..." Shadower trailed.
"Hey! Stoneard not dumb! You are!" Stoneard poorly retorted, getting into a ball and rolling his way. Shadower was crushed under his weight and left flattened like a piece of paper.
"Man, that's gotta hurt…" Sonic gawked, while Kirby got an air pump and used it to unflatten the Shadow Brother.
"Poyo! (Don't worry! I have this under control!)" Kirby assured, finishing his job as Shadower got back up.
Mario shrugged before he pulled his hammer out and smashed Stoneard's head. Chopper leaped in the air and landed a D-Down Jump on the rock monster.
"Argh! You guys still won't give up? Fine! Let's see how you like this!" Decoya fired a Fire Shroom at Stoneard, but rather than hurting him, it transformed him to an orange color. "There! Now you're in for something interesting! As long as he's on fire, you can't touch him!"
Stoneard got in a ball again and started to roll over everyone. Thankfully, they saw it coming and brought their guard up to prevent themselves from getting burned.
"This doesn't change anything. Watch what I can do!" Chopper changed to his Water ability and sprayed water on Stoneard. This managed to extinguish the flames on him. "All right! Go and get him, guys!"
Sonic gave him a nod, curled up in a ball, and threw himself at Stoneard. He made a pose as he got out of his ball form, only to feel some stone hands grab a hold of him.
"Uh oh..."
Blade, Bang, and Night watched as Sonic got thrown across the room by Stoneard. "Grar har har! You're so light, that Stoneard could throw you across ocean!"
"Yikes! I wouldn't want that!" Sonic gulped.
Chopper squirted more water at Stoneard, and with the help of Shadower, his defense was down to 0.
"Argh… Stoneard will SMASH you!" Stoneard brought his fists down on Shadower, attempting to flatten him. Thankfully, he Superguarded the attack and did 1 damage to him. Afterward, Stoneard's flames returned, which were easily put out by Chopper's water. After Kirby's Cartwheel, Stoneard was down to 139 HP.
"Poyo! (He's more than halfway finished!)" Kirby cheered, Superguarding Stoneard's jump. Chopper then landed a Gravity Jump that dealt 26 damage, and then Scrub's Gulp brought him to 102 HP.
"Yeah! Now this is some easy pickings!" Scrub smirked.
"Grrr! Stoneard won't give up yet!" Stoneard tried to punch Chopper, but he easily guarded it. Shadower quickly lowered his defense while he threw in a Gravity Jump on him to deal 30.
"Argh! That's it!" Decoya changed Stoneard to his normal self and left. "You're on your own now, Stoneard! I can't do any more of this!"
"Decoya! Wait!" Stoneard cried, begging her to come back. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and she had abandoned him. He was enraged, so he punched Chopper with his fists, taking 15 out of him. Chopper retaliated with a Gravity Jump, while Tamber threw in a Power Punch, bringing him down to 20 HP.
"We've got this in the bag!" Tamber smirked.
"Argh! Now Stoneard is getting weak! Stoneard HATES this!" Stoneard punched Chopper again, and this time, he knocked his ability away. "Now Stoneard make you suffer!"
"That is, unless we beat you first," Chopper said, hitting him with his hammer, followed up with Mario's hammer. This had left him with 4 HP.
"No... Stoneard must crush you..." Stoneard groaned, rolling into them and dealing another 15 damage. Regardless of that, he was nearly finished, and one more blow would do him in.
"So... Who wants to finish this off?" Chopper asked.
"I'll do it!" Scrub proclaimed, using his gulp to spit him out and leave him collapsed on the floor. "See? That was a cakewalk!"
After Chopper upgraded his HP to 140, everyone sighed in relief and lowered their guard.
"Whew! We finally did it!" Bang cheered. "I feel so proud…"
"Uhhh... I didn't see you out there." Sonic noted.
"True," Blade agreed.
"So… What now?" Scrub asked, receiving shrugs for an answer. "But... Aren't we supposed to go somewhere else or something?"
"We are... But there's nothing here." Chopper noticed. "Well, I guess we should just leave this castle."
However, just before they could turn around, Stoneard had managed to get himself up and let out a roar. This had got everyone's attention back to him, and they quickly got in fighting stances.
"Stoneard… Stoneard will THROW you out of here!" Stoneard yelled, stomping the floor angrily and causing it to shake. "Stoneard is ANGRY!"
"Whoa... What is this?" Bombette gawked.
Stoneard had jumped up and performed a ground pound on the floor. It was so powerful, that it managed to lift everyone off their feet and send them flying out of the castle, creating a hole in the process. In fact, it had managed to send them flying off the continent.
"…And Stoneard never wants to see you again!"
Personally, I wouldn't say this chapter was anything special, but it did show some things such as Lord Crump taking off, and the return of Dark Doom and his Dark Creatures. Plus, I'm not a big fan of desert areas.
Now the next area, on the other hand... That might be a bit more interesting.